G
Guns Guns Guns
Guest
Would the tea party movement be happy with a 20 percent across-the-board tax cut?
All taxes, all sources — state, local, excise, corporate, whatever.
And real cuts, measured by real taxes that people actually pay — the actual share of taxes in gross domestic product — without being misled by the nominal rates that almost no one pays in reality.
Amazingly, we’ve already tried that. In 2000, perhaps our last truly prosperous year, U.S. all-source taxation was 29.5 percent of GDP. In 2009, by contrast, all-source taxation was only 24 percent of GDP — a nearly 20 percent cut.
If one listens to the din from new conservative governors, from the Pauls, père et fils, and from most Republicans in Congress, America is groaning under a unique burden of heartless taxation.
In truth, however, we live in one of the most lightly taxed advanced nations in the world.
Each year, with about a two-year lag, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development computes the GDP share consumed by all taxes in its 34 member nations. The United States is always at the low end.
In 2007, it was fifth from the bottom, and in 2008, fourth from the bottom.
In the new 2009 data, it is trailed only by Chile and Mexico.
The median tax share of GDP for the countries in the table (note to dumbfucks and PMP - wait, I'm repeating myself: you'll have to click the link to see the table) is about 34 percent — or 42 percent higher than in the U.S.
That’s not surprising, for American taxes are somewhere around a post-World War II low.
Federal taxes, at about 15 percent of GDP, are the lowest since 1950.
That’s the sweet spot — just after the all-out postwar demobilization and just before the big tax impact of the Korean War and the Cold War arms buildup.
State and local taxes have been roughly flat as a share of GDP for almost 50 years.
Certainly, we need to maintain special vigilance over government spending. The “bridges to nowhere,” the subsidies to oil companies and big agriculture, all have a way of becoming permanent.
We need to keep an eagle eye out for entitlement cheats and ping-ponging testing scams in Medicare mills.
It’s worthwhile asking whether American safety requires spending more than the next 20 biggest military spenders combined.
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0411/52661.html#ixzz1J1kObgaQ
All taxes, all sources — state, local, excise, corporate, whatever.
And real cuts, measured by real taxes that people actually pay — the actual share of taxes in gross domestic product — without being misled by the nominal rates that almost no one pays in reality.
Amazingly, we’ve already tried that. In 2000, perhaps our last truly prosperous year, U.S. all-source taxation was 29.5 percent of GDP. In 2009, by contrast, all-source taxation was only 24 percent of GDP — a nearly 20 percent cut.
If one listens to the din from new conservative governors, from the Pauls, père et fils, and from most Republicans in Congress, America is groaning under a unique burden of heartless taxation.
In truth, however, we live in one of the most lightly taxed advanced nations in the world.
Each year, with about a two-year lag, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development computes the GDP share consumed by all taxes in its 34 member nations. The United States is always at the low end.
In 2007, it was fifth from the bottom, and in 2008, fourth from the bottom.
In the new 2009 data, it is trailed only by Chile and Mexico.
The median tax share of GDP for the countries in the table (note to dumbfucks and PMP - wait, I'm repeating myself: you'll have to click the link to see the table) is about 34 percent — or 42 percent higher than in the U.S.
That’s not surprising, for American taxes are somewhere around a post-World War II low.
Federal taxes, at about 15 percent of GDP, are the lowest since 1950.
That’s the sweet spot — just after the all-out postwar demobilization and just before the big tax impact of the Korean War and the Cold War arms buildup.
State and local taxes have been roughly flat as a share of GDP for almost 50 years.
Certainly, we need to maintain special vigilance over government spending. The “bridges to nowhere,” the subsidies to oil companies and big agriculture, all have a way of becoming permanent.
We need to keep an eagle eye out for entitlement cheats and ping-ponging testing scams in Medicare mills.
It’s worthwhile asking whether American safety requires spending more than the next 20 biggest military spenders combined.
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0411/52661.html#ixzz1J1kObgaQ